Apparatus for supplying a machine with material



M. BERGER 1,941,429

. APPARATUs Fon S UPPLYiNG A MACHINE WITH MATERIAL -Fi1d Dec. 6. 19 i 3' Sheets-Sheet 1 M. BERGER APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING A MACHINE WITH MATERIAL Filed Dec. 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 R E G R E B .M

APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING'A MACHINE WITH MATERIAL Filed Dec. 16, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 v latented Dec. 2 (i, l9 3 3 I t I 2 tobacco pile in the spreader and to this end, form part of-this'speciflcation and in which simi- 75 UNITED} STATES PATENT: 1 OFFICE g u v 1,941,429 arrmrns ron sorrmzmd A mom i wrrnm'mamn Martin Berger, Freital, Germany, assignor to the firm Universelle Gigarettenmaschinen-Fabrik,

J. O. Muller& Co., Dresden,' Germany Application December 16, 1931, Serial No. 581,419, and in Germany April 13, 1931 Claims. (01. soc-2a) The P u -t bplyof Severecigarette mavalve which interrupts further sup y of tobacco chines with tobacco is known, the cut tobacco-to the corresponding dust separator.

-' in conveyed to h tobacco separator through The arrangement may-also be such that the pneumatic conduits. collector be inform of a pipe displaceably mount- 6 This invention deals with the eflecting 0f the ed on the mouth of the tobacco dust separator 60 supply in an automatic manner so that after a. and closed at the bottom by a valve, the pipe be- 1 predetermined quantity of tobacco has been used ing under the action of a spring or the equivalent, i the p r, a corresponding repleni h whereby after the pipe has received a certain I supply of tobacco may be brought to the said quantity of tobacco it will move downwardly into 10 separator. 1 a position in which electric contacts will close 65 It has been known for some time that the prick resulting in the closing of the electric-circuit of rollers of a tobacco spreader are most efiective s'aid electromagnet hereinbefore mentioned. with a certain optimum height of tobacco pile in Advantageously, the collector has an outlet the spreader- Th i h 0! e pi d p d n valve which in turn is controlled by a solenoid 16' different circumstances, such as the shapes of whose electric circuit is closed and opened bya 70 the cigaretteto be made, their lengths, normal contactlever automatically actuated from the weight, and also upon the number or revolutions fobacco'spreaden i v of said roller. Attempts have been made to con- My invention may bemore fully understood by timlously maintain the Said p u e h of reference to the accompanying drawings which markings have been provided in the spreader tolar reference characters denote corresponding enable the attendants to maintain the pile within parts. the limits. of these markings. Experience has In the drawings: shown, -however,'that this is not practical because Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the only small quantties of tobacco are necessary to device; 50 i be added at any onetime to maintain the desired Fig. 2 is. a diagrammatic top plan view; and optimum hei h of t e s id pile a d. h e e, Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged sectional detailed said attendants always wait until the pile has views of two difierent positions of operation of sunk considerably below the optimum height bemy device, a lg li ig i pile. hThten intrlepleniishing Referring to thet drawing: A, B den'ogc refl 'ecisza 55 ey e sprea er muc a ove e 0p imum 'tively two cigaret e mac es arrange en height in order to save time and labor. relative to one another, and which are supplied Accordingly, the present invention consists in with tobacco by a pneumatic feeding, conduit a. the provision of collectors, one between each The air pressure for feeding th t b is 36 spreader and a common feeder, which collectors duced by a blower'b. The tobacco may be delivare designed to receive said tobacco quantities ered to the conduit a at the inlet c. Arranged and from wh ch quantit s. w ver qu d, y over each cigarette machine is a dust separator p p f 323113 means. they Supply in the Spreader d of any well known construction, whose upper 15 p 8 e A part is cylindrical and lower part funnel shaped. In this is Wssible to replenish the Each dust separator is connected to the main W in m l amounts the conduit a by a branch conduit e. The air used in .sumptlon and quaintlty nepessary to maintam feeding the tobacco in conduit a saturated with the g u ii i gg s when dust is conducted'inknown manner from the dust i 0t er wor e elg of he tobacco 9 m separator into a common discharge pipe f through he spreader is always between predetermined limit a branch pipe g. At the points a where the s which, of course, must he within range of b h th re tr r the most favorable operation. ram Jom e.mam mm a a ap o The arrangement is'advantageousl flap valves h pivoted at -z. Each valve is provided ysuch,that 1 ti 1y tobacco from the main feed line will pass from 2. l lever whlch by r 15 f ve o dust separator in a branch of, that line into, connected to the armature l of a soenoid m.. 103

collector, which after receiving a certain tobacco E armature 1 9 m a beam; 1 and quantity, automatically moves into a new posi- 15 actuated'by. splmg an equiva' tion at which, for instance, by closing an elecl nt connected to the letverr n lsotiilliat wheni hgfi: trio-circuit to an electro-magnet or the like, the is no curren vpassing 0118 e 5 ene latter is so actuated as to cause the closing of a. armature l is pulled downwardly into the pom-ion no shown in Fig. 3 'in which the valve h directs material into the branch pipe a. I

Slidably mounted on the cylindrical outlet portion of the dust separator d in a telescopic manner is a pipe o'which is guided by a sleeve or pipe d" fixed to the dust separator 11. The lower in the upper position shown in Fig. 3.

When a certain quantity of tobacco has accumulated in the pipe 0, then the latter on overbalancing the force of spring 1 will sink into the position shown in Fig. 4 in which the contact piece s fixed to the pipe 0 will be brought into contact with the contact piece s fixed to the guide or pipe d". These contact pieces s, s are connected to the electric wires 1? leading from an electric source S through the solenoid m. Thus as soon as the contact pieces s, s are closed the solenoid m is energized and the fiap h is caused to swing into closing position (Fig. 4), so that the further supply of tobacco to the corresponding dust separator 11 is interrupted.

In the tobacco spreader U of each cigarette machine A, B, there is a contact lever u pivoted at u and controlled by a cam it", which through a.

set of transmission gears 24" is rotated from the receiving prick roller shaft. After a certain number of rotations of the prick roller shaft the cam u" is brought into the position shown in Fig. 4 at which time the contact points 1; are bridged electrically through the contact piece of the lever u, whereby the electric circuit is closed and the solenoid y energized. As a result thereof the armature q of said solenoid is pulled upwardly into the position shown in Fig. 4. This causes the flap valve p to swing into the opening position so that the tobacco contained in the pipe 0 is allowed to pass into the tobacco spreader U.

When this is effected the pipe 0 under the action of spring 1' returns into its initial position shown in Fig. 3 thereby the circuit through the wires 15 is broken and consequently the flap valve it returns into its opening position while the flap valve p again closes the bottom of pipe 0 so that a quantity of tobacco again accumulates in the pipe 0.

A spring u"" or the equivalent tends to keep the lever 11. in the position of Fig. 3.

It is to be noted that the contact lever 11. is so actuated by the cam 11. that the quantity of tobacco removed from the spreader U by the prick rollers corresponds to that accumulated in the pipe 0. I w g In operation my device works as follows:

Assume that collector 11 associated with machine A has sufficient tobacco in it to weigh pipe 0 of said collector down into the position shown in Fig. 4. Assume further that pipe 0 of collector 11 associated with machine Bis in the position of Fig. '3, i. e. just after it has discharged its supply of tobacco to the latter machine.

In such positions, contacts s, s of machine A are closed resulting in energization of solenoid m thereof and consequently flap valve h associated with machine A is in the position of Fig. 4 closing off branch line e thereof sothat no tobacco from .said conduit a is diverted into said branch line e of machine A.

At'the same time. since contacts s and s' associated with machine B are separated as shown in Fig. 3 solenoid m of the latter machine is deenergized and therefore flap valve h 'of thesaid machine is rotated into conduit 41 and diverts the tobacco and air stream into channel eassociated with machine B from whence the diverted stream enters collector d of said machine. The tobacco enters pipe 0 and the air and dust, through branchv pipe g, are led out to common discharge pipe I. When the filling of pipe 0 of machine B is complete, the said pipe moves down to the position of Fig. 4 whereupon contacts 8 and s thereof close and the flap valve 71. thereof assumes the position of Fig. 4.

In the filling interim of pipe 0 of machine B, the cam u of machine A has rotated to the position of Fig. 4 and caused arm u to close the electhrough solenoid y and consequently close flap 1) before the tobacco enters pipe '0.

Likewise during the filling of pipe 0 of machine A, the emptying of pipe 0 of machine B is effected in the same manner as that of machine A.

The timing between cams u" of machine A and u" of machine B, of course, should be such as to effect the above described successive action of levers u.

My invention is not limited to two machines, but may be equally applied to larger numbers of machines by proper arrangement of the cams u" on each of the successive machines.

My invention may be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit thereof and I do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described.

WhatI claim is:

1. Apparatus for supplying the tobacco spreaders of a plurality of cigarette machines with tobacco-by means of a common pneumatic feed conduit formed with branch conduits leading therefrom, including collectin means for said tobacco connected with each branch conduit in advance of each machine and having a movable outlet to the spreader of the respective machine, a movable closure means for each outlet. means at the junction of each branch conduit with said common conduit for deflecting said material from the said common conduit to the respective branch conduit, electrical means between said movable outlet and said deflecting means to interrupt the feed of the tobacco into the branch conduit'of the respective collector when saidmovable outlet has been lowered by the weight of the tobacco collected' therein and electrical means controlled from the spreader and actuating said closure means so that at a predetermined instant which coincides with that when the tobacco pile in said spreader reaches a certain level the closure of the respective collector will be opened to permit the said tobacco to drop to replenish said pile.

2. Apparatus for supplying the tobacco spreaders of a plurality of cigarette machines with tobacco by means of a common pneumatic feed conduit formed with branch conduits leading therefrom including tobacco collecting means connected with each branch conduit in advance of each cigarette machine and having a gravity ac- 11,941,429 tuated movable outlet to its respective machine,

movable closure means for each outlet, means at the-' junction of each branch conduit and "said common conduit for deflecting tobacco from the common conduit to the respective branch conduit,

spreader controlled electrical means to actuate said closure means, and electrical means controlled by said movable outlet for actuating the respective deflecting means.

, 3. Apparatus for supplying tobacco spreaders with tobacco by means of feed conduit formed with therefrom including a acommon pneumatic branch conduits leading dust separator connected with each branch conoutlet, a movable colof each separator, in advance of each machine, said collector having a tobacco outlet leading to its respective machine, movable closure means for each collector outlet, means at the junction of each branch duit and-having a tobacco conduit and said common conduit for deflecting -tobacco from the common conduit to the respective branch conduit, spreader actuated electrical means to actuate said closure means and electrical means for actuating the respective deflecting means, said electrical means including make and break mechanism operated by said movable collector,

Y collector, means for controlling the feed. 0! -to-.

4. In 'an apparatus for supplying the tobacco spreader of a cigarette machine with tobacco, a movable tobacco collector. a feed conduit leading into said 'collectona movable closure on said bacco from said conduit into said collector, means controlled from said movable collector for actuating said feed controlling means and means actuated by said spreader ,for controlling said closure means of said collector.

5. An apparatus as set forthin circuit controlling ciaiuri 4, in I which the movable portion of said collector is gravity actuated and spring controlled.

6, An apparatusv as set forth in claim 4, in which the means actuated by said spreader includes a cam.

"7. In an spreader of feed conduit, a gravity actuated movable collector connected thereto, a movable electrically controlled closure on said collector, a spring actuated electrically co""trolled trap for controlling the feed, a mak and break means actuated by said movable collector to control the circuit controlling said trap, so that lowered by the weight of the tobacco accumulated therein the trap thereof will close, and a spreader actuated make and break means to control the electric circuit for said closure means so that at a predetermined instant which coincides with that when the height of the tobacco pile in apparatus-for supplying the tobacco a cigarette machine with tobacco, a

when said collector is said spreader reaches a certain level said closure to replenish said pile.

as set forth in claim '1, in controlling said trap armature of which is tobacco. accumulated in said I 9. An apparatus as set forth in claim '1, in

which the make and break means of the electric tionary contact and a contact on said movable collector.

10.'An apparatus as set forth in claim 7, in

which the spreader actuated make and break ineans comprises two contact points, a bridgins member therefor and a cam driven from said spreader and actuating said bridging member.

BERGER.

said trap comprises a sta-- 

